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Ive had pro tools for about a few months now and im still having trouble mixing my vocals. Ive been playing with compression, EQ, reverb, and De-Ess but i get a very muffled sound. What am i doing wrong and how can i get a cleaner sound? Is it all in the EQ?

as with everything... its all in what you record. If you record a clean signal, you shouldn't have to touch much up. If you record a bad signal, sometimes all the EQ, compression and De-Essing in the world won't help.

You've got to start at the source.

Having said that, if its muffled, try lowering some of the midrange frequencies. You can also try boosting the higher end, although you run the risk of raising your room tone noise floor.

SOMETIMES, it helps to pull up an EQ and put a high pass filter on it and start low and begin moving the low pass frequency higher and higher until it starts to have an adverse effect. Move it up juuuust until you hear a difference, then back it down just a hair. Normally, you don't need super low frequencies in there that aren't perceptible to your ears, but do muddy up the rest of the mix.

I wouldn't say its ALL in the EQ, but that's where I would imagine most people start.

hi there,
in my experience its all in how you record the voice to begin with,
the Mic you use and the way you put the track down.
i had a 4-track for a long while and really took the time to get the sound i wanted going in.
But if you already have the vocal takes you want you can play with EQ.
also get into compression and just tweak it.
nothing matches a well recorded vocal. the rest is like a band-aid though you can get it sounding good with some work and tweaking.
maybe go OUT of your protools INTO a nice analog PREAMP and back in.....try different things.
good luck
chris

It can also depend on the type of mic that you have. Make sure that you have a vocal mic and not an instrument mic.

Funny thing about vox... the mic helps... but not everyone sounds great on the same mic or through the same mic pre's.

Getting the best signal to start out with is key... and go from there.

The vocal mic and not instrument mic adage is common but honestly... I've experimented with a lot of mics on vocals and you know what... it all depends on what you want to achieve. I've gotten some good final vocal takes on an SM57 and even an RE20... or a U87... just try out what sounds best. Many people invest in one "good" mic and one expensive mic pre and expect great results always... usually they can get away with it but some times it just won't do.

Are you adding to your EQ or are you doing subtractive EQ? Taking away first is always smarter.

Compression... to taste... genre... and sometimes you need to get aggressive to get what you want from a vocal. Don't be scared.

DEss... sometime multiple D-Essers work great... sometimes none... if you have an ess problem then your mic might not be the best for that vocalist.

If it sounds good going in then you have a good starting point at mixdown...

Any questions, just hit me up... I'd be glad to give advice and I'm curious to your setup...

I have an MXL 67 But im Getting a Rode Nt1a this week, do you think those are good mics for recording vocals? I find the MXL 67 sound pretty good but I looking to get something better and just learn the differences between diff. mics

Sometimes when i record vocal on the MXL 67 i get that "puh" sound like when you blow into the mic and i have an stocking on my mic filter do you think it could be the person who im recording should i tell him to relax or it ways to fix that?